chapman] SCHOOL-GARDENS IN SAX FRANCISCO 227 



hair and freckles. Some of the children showed signs of having 

 careful mothers, but many more, poor children of the street, let one 

 read the sorry story of their birth in their sad pinched faces and dull 

 eyes. 



"This is all right, but you just ought to see what the big fellows are 

 doing up on the farm." This bit of information was volunteered by 

 a boy from whose lips words fell with the truest "South of Market'" 

 click "Sure I will show you the way." He knew everything in the 

 Park for he was "in with all the men." It was not a bit like going to 

 school out here, for they studied under the trees and could run out at 

 recess and ride the donkeys. "It seemed like a great time camping 

 out, this living in tents." So he chatted on till the Park seemed on 

 the point of forgetting that it had ever been reclaimed from the deso- 

 late sand-dunes of the ocean beach. There in almost the last place 

 one would think of looking for gardens the Park Commissioners have 

 set aside a piece of ground for the experiment Principal Armstrong 

 has undertaken with these refugee children. 



It looks discouraging enough at first glance when you see what 

 difficulties the man has had to overcome. The land was plowed, 

 leaving here great hard unbroken clods and there almost pure sand; 

 here a hollow, there an abrupt elevation, and yet worse than all this 

 there was no water. 



To those who do not know children these things would stand for 

 discouragement and defeat, but fortunately Principal Armstrong knows 

 children and recognizes the best that is in them. Armed with tools 

 that the Board of Education has generously provided for him, the small 

 army marched out single file to conquer this piece of unruly land. 

 And what a picture they did make! Each child was given a patch of 

 land about 10 feet square which he marked off with stakes and string 

 and with a will they all set to work. In a short time order seemed 

 to be coming out of chaos. To \a sure paths were not all straight, for 

 of course John was ambitious to get -every inch of land belonging to 

 him and even crowded the path a little, or Henry was not quite equal 

 to the heavy ground that had fallen to him and wearied before the path 

 was reached; but what does the straightness of a path mean amid all 

 this earnest delightful work ? Everybody wanted to get his bed in 

 order first and then to help out his neighbor in any possible way. 

 Joe had hurt his hand and could not spade, and as he stood rather 

 helplessly by his garden three of his friends cheerily volunteered to 

 help him out and at once set to work. In time seeds were planted in 



